THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240183
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: 66 lines
Memorial Day weekend is here and that means the beginning of the season and that means lotsa T-O-U-R-I-S-T-S.
That, in turn, means lotsa M-O-N-E-Y pouring into the cash registers of resort merchants and innkeepers for the next four months.
There'll be traffic jams on Atlantic Avenue, there'll be traffic jams on Pacific Avenue and on 21st Street and Laskin Road and there'll be traffic jams in checkout lanes at Oceanfront supermarkets.
Every parking space within a three-mile radius of the Oceanfront, metered and unmetered, will be filled. Firm-jawed meter attendants wearing opaque sunglassses will write reams of tickets for visitors and locals who don't or won't pay the going 75-cent hourly rate for curbside parking.
There'll be swarms of wreckers yanking cars out of restaurant and hotel parking lots and residential driveways and car owners will yowl about being gouged mercilessly for towing and storage fees for vehicles that shouldn't have been parked where they were in the first place.
Locals, especially North Enders, will grouse about visitors usurping all side street parking spaces and grabbing all the beach space that is considered private property during the off-season, even though it isn't.
Beaches, especially resort beaches, will be packed like Seal Island at mating time. There'll be vendors selling flavored ice cones, chilled drinks, hot dogs and chips, and the college kids will be back on the lifeguard stands, now that classes have ended for the year.
Once on their lordly perches those same lifeguards - looking studly and bronzed - will be appropriately aloof as bikini-clad teeny-boppers parade by in hopes of attracting at least a passing glance.
Bicyclists, pedestrians, in-line skaters, joggers, skateboarders and punks with chips on their shoulders will contest every square inch of maneuvering space on the Boardwalk like ornery mountain goats. No-man's land includes the bike path, which is supposed to be reserved for bikes but seldom is, in fact. Combatants will gladly step aside for the inevitable kook who walks by with his neck swathed in the coils of a 20-foot-long boa constrictor. Or, in the absence of a boa, a leashed mongoose, weasel or pit bull will have the same effect.
A few budding rocket scientists will bring their dogs down to the Boardwalk, where the poor animals will plod in scorching heat at the end of a leash without benefit of water or places to relieve themselves when nature calls.
There'll be wall-to-wall cops on Atlantic Avenue, keeping an eye on passing sailors, high school and college kids in cars and on the endless nighttime processions of people on the sidewalks.
There'll be millions of gallons of beer and alcohol consumed, some of it in those cars that the cops are keeping an eye on. A lot more of it will be consumed at resort strip night spots and in hotel and motel rooms and a lot more - at $3 a cup - at Oceanfront parks where weekend concerts are staged.
Tourists with fish-belly complexions will try to get that bronzed look all in one day and wind up looking like parboiled lobsters, wishing they were back in Pottstown or Paducah where tans are normally acquired by mowing lawns shirtless on sunny weekends.
But hey, it's the season. Come on down and join the fun. ILLUSTRATION: The physical education department at Shelton Park
Elementary presented ``Helping Hands Helping Hearts.'' With each
grade represented, some 215 students participated in Hula Hoops,
step aerobics, jump ropes and bands, parachute, basketball, ribbon
balls and tumbling. Every student made his or her own personalized
hand-print T-shirt. Second-grader Brent Thomson gives a Hula Hoop a
whirl. by CNB